On Train Tour, Bush Courts Swing Voters

August 10, 2000|By Bob Kemper, Tribune Staff Writer.

OXNARD, Calif. — Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush on Wednesday opened a campaign swing through California, the state that helped eject his father from the White House in 1992 and next week hosts the Democratic National Convention.

Just days before the convention opens in Los Angeles, Bush took his whistle-stop "Change the Tone" tour through swing areas north of the city, vowing to compete for the single greatest electoral prize of the campaign.

"Somebody said the other day, `Well, you just like to go to California because it's a pretty place to be, but you don't intend to fight for it, just like the other two [previous Republican presidential] campaigns.' They misunderstand me," Bush told more than 5,000 people at a railside rally.

"My intentions are to come here a lot, not only because it's a pretty place, but we are going to come here because we intend to carry California in November," he said.

Bush's train rolled through Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, areas that his father, former President George Bush, and the party's 1996 nominee, Sen. Bob Dole, narrowly lost to President Clinton. But it also is home to significant numbers of swing voters Bush must win over if he hopes to turn around the GOP's prospects in California.

In Oxnard, a coastal community dependent on agriculture and tourism, nearly equal numbers of voters are registered as Democrats and Republicans. But 28 percent are independents up for grabs, according to Bush advisers.

Bush on Wednesday also courted Latino voters in San Luis Obispo County and reached out to mostly Democratic voters in Santa Barbara County on what was his 14th campaign trip to California, and his seventh since winning the GOP primary here March 7.

Public opinion polls show Gore with a narrow advantage in California, but the Bush campaign is trying to broadcast its intention to compete everywhere while forcing Gore and the Democratic Party to spend money in what should have been a relatively safe state.

"It's a state where I've had to work hard to change the tone of our party," Bush told reporters before his train excursion. "I believe we're making good progress."

Bush, portraying himself as a "compassionate conservative" and "a different kind of Republican," has distanced himself from some initiatives enacted in California.

Bush declined at the time to endorse the 1994 initiative of former California Gov. Pete Wilson, once a shining GOP star, to deny education and medical services to the children of illegal immigrants. He also would not back Wilson's 1996 effort to abolish affirmative action in state hiring, employment, education and contracting.

Bush will step up his efforts to attract Democratic and independent voters on Thursday by welcoming aboard his train Sen. John McCain, his rival in this year's primaries.

"These are areas of swing and independent voters that we think Gov. Bush will be able to appeal to in November, and Sen. McCain will help us to reach out to swing and independent voters," Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes said.

In California's open primary in March, Gore outpaced all other contenders. The vice president captured 34 percent of the overall vote; Bush got 28 percent.